If project success is to be defined only on the basis of an organization’s ability to produce planned deliverables on time and within budget, statistics will show that failure rate can go as high as 70 percent. Project management enables teams and companies to reduce this rate, and even remove it completely, which means projects are successfully delivered. Through project management, they are able to improve their chances of achieving the desired result.
Smaller teams and companies take on projects with relatively smaller scopes, also, because of limited resources, time, and money. However, as businesses and or the organization grows, their projects also become bigger and more complex. PM software, such as Wrike and Basecamp, makes it more organized, manageable, and efficient for project teams. We will compare these 2 popular tools to help potential users choose the right one for their company.
Wrike
Wrike is a leading online project management software for business. With the help of the software, users are able to simplify their project planning process, centralize company communication, and streamline team workflow. It was founded in 2006 with headquarters in San Jose, CA, USA. Today, it has over 20,000 customer organizations and about 2M users, including Hootsuite, Mars Candy Company, and L’Oreal. It is a popular solution for marketing teams, creatives, project teams, product development teams, and many others.
Basecamp
Basecamp is another leading project management and team communication software. The cloud-based software enables individuals and organizations to handle their business effectively, and create well-organized and self-sufficient teams and collaborations. It was founded in 1999 with headquarters in Chicago, IL, USA. After 20 years, it has signed up over 3 million users, including Shopify, 121 Captions, NASA, and more. With the use of the software, customers report of increased productivity, decreased errors, and happier clients. They are more organized, and everyone involved is on the same page.
Wrike vs Basecamp
These 2 superb project management software will be evaluated on 5 comparison points: features, price, ease of use, security, and support. Each category will have a winner, and in conclusion, the overall winner will be declared.
1. Features
Wrike has solid task management features, allowing users to easily create tasks and assign them. They can prioritize, schedule and reschedule tasks, and visualize dependencies with its powerful Gantt chart. Project planning is simplified with tools such as Dynamic Request Forms that capture every project requirement detail even from the start. Users can customize workflows that provide a clear picture of work progress, removing the need for status-update emails. Collaboration is built-in with tools such as comments, at-mentions, and a Proofing tool. It has Dashboards that provide overview info at-a-glance, with drill-down capabilities, as well as flexible and shareable reports. Wrike integrates with many apps and services and has Wrike Integrate that allows users to create custom integrations with more than 400 cloud and on-premise apps.
Basecamp is a powerful organizational tool. From the start, it encourages users to break up work into projects that contain related work, people, discussion, files, tasks, and others. Inside every project are tools that can be enabled, such as to-do lists, calendars, docs and files, and several communication tools that improve collaboration. It has message boards, group chat, automated check-ins, and others. It also has a Hill Chart linked to tasks that provide status information and allows users to pro-actively make corrections or adjustment before problems arise. Basecamp has desktop and mobile apps, and also integrates with third-party apps and services, but not as many as with Wrike.
Winner: Wrike
2. Price
Wrike has a free plan for up to 5 users and includes a simple, shared task list. The Professional plan for a group of 5, 10 and 15 users starts at $9.80 per user per month and includes full project planning and collaboration features. If you have more than 15 users, the only choice is to go up with the Business plan, which can accommodate up to 200 users, at $24.80 per user per month. For more than 200 users, the Enterprise plan is available. The software is free to try for 14 days.
Basecamp offers a forever-free Personal plan, which is limited to 3 projects, 20 users, and 1GB storage space. Basecamp Business is a simple flat rate of $99 per month regardless of how many users. Even as the company grows, a monthly subscription to the software remains the same. It offers unlimited projects and unlimited users, 500GB of storage space, dedicated space for the company, for every team project, unlimited clients, project templates, and advanced client access. It can be tried for free for 30 days.
Winner: Basecamp
3. Ease of Use
It is easy to start with Wrike, with simple sign-up. Once registered, users can quickly create their project with the help of templates, which are further grouped for marketing and creative, IT and engineering, or for general purpose. Templates include videos to help get started. The software also has many powerful task management and scheduling tools that can be intimidating to first-timers. Creating dependencies in the Gantt chart can be challenging, but with regular use, or a consultation with the help articles, users can steadily build their skills.
Basecamp is designed with ease of use in mind. It has a simple and intuitive interface for any type and level of users and teams. The minimalist design shows a balanced and well-spaced layout that people can use all day without getting a headache. It has a soft color palette, cheerful imagery, boosts to show appreciation to a teammate, templates, and excellent notification setting controls.
Winner: Basecamp
4. Security
Wrike has excellent security information about its setup. It has a detailed overview of physical security, to network, application, privacy, and so on. US data center is ISO 271001, SOC1, and SOC2 compliant. EU datacenter is ISO 27001 and ISAE 3402 compliant. It has 24/7 manned security, fully redundant power backup systems, physical access controls, biometric authentication systems, extensive seismic bracing, early-detection smoke and fire alarms, and digital surveillance systems. It provides regular updates and patch management, supports 2FA, multiple methods of federated authentication, such as Google Open ID, Azure, Office 365, ADFS and SAML2. It uses TLS 1.2 with AES 256-bit data encryption and complies with the US-EU privacy shield framework.
Basecamp data is written to multiple disks instantly, backed up daily, and stored in multiple locations. Data is sent using HTTPS protocol. It has full redundancy of major systems, secured servers, 24/7/365 onsite staff, regularly updated infrastructure, and a PCI-compliant network for transmission, storage and processing of credit card information. It also complies with GDPR, EU-US and Swiss-US privacy shield framework.
Winner: Wrike
5. Help and Support
Wrike has support packages depending on the customer’s plan. Premium plan holders get support from multiple channels, including email, Help Center chat, dedicated phone line, and Workspace chat. Help and support is available 24/7, or at least 24/5 for free plan users. Response time for premium subscribers is within 1 hour. Support packages are available for purchase as subscription add-ons, so this is very reliable. It also has a comprehensive Help Center where interactive training, videos, and getting started articles are available. A community forum can also be used to ask questions and look for best practices.
Basecamp has an always-human support team that will reply back in 3 minutes. It also has a page for tutorials, helps guides, and a contact page with forms to submit a support request. Support is limited between Monday through Friday only, between 8 am and 6:30 pm US Central Time.
Winner: Wrike
Conclusion – Wrike is the Winner
After going through a close match, we declare Wrike as the winner, getting 3 out of 5 categories. Pricing and ease of use are important considerations, but careful resource planning can help get most out of Wrike’s pricing plan. Also, with regular use, teams can get familiar with its interface and navigation to use it more proficiently. Should you decide to go for Basecamp, we highly suggest using Bridge24 for Basecamp, which provides great reporting and exporting features.